Seven years before the Pulitzer Prize-winning global phenomenon that is HAMILTON opened on Broadway in 2015 and blew the roof off staged musicals forever, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Broadway musical the Tony Award-winning IN THE HEIGHTS opened in the same theater in 2008. Now, like "Hamilton," it's also a movie, a glorious movie more powerful [...]
This is the best virtual theater I've seen all pandemic: chekhovOS/an experimental game/. Conceived and directed by Arlekin Players Theatre founder and artistic director Igor Golyak, this production melds live and pre-taped theater, video, film, and gaming technology into a hybrid that unlocks a new way of understanding the world of Chekhov's plays, even as [...]
BLACK BEANS PROJECT the latest virtual undertaking presented by The Huntington is a delicious digital offering and one of the most effective theater experiences offered in a medium tough to scale for theater-goers craving intimacy and drama. This world premiere one act, two-hander created by Huntington artist-in-residence and Elliot Norton Prize-winner Melinda Lopez and Joel [...]
I raved about HYPE MAN: a break beat play by Idris Goodwin at its 2018 world premiere directed onstage by Company One's artistic director Shawn LaCount. Now, as George Floyd haunts and Daunte Wright brings us to flash point again, this urgent piece of theater brings a too familiar tragedy right to our screens and [...]
The two events I recommend here are among the most joyous presentations of the season, and are just as, if not more effective in virtual form! One marks its 5oth ANNIVERSARY this year, that medieval pageant celebrating the winter solstice known as THE CHRISTMAS REVELS. The second has been a classic on page, stage, and [...]
As the pandemic rages over the holidays, we are anchored at home to our screens. And despite plenty to stream (if you are lucky enough to have homes and screens) there has been no live theater. But here's JAMES CORDEN & a few "friends" to the rescue. WATCH THE FOLLOWING SEGMENT from his nightly show [...]
What a time, what a year. I wanted to let everyone who follows my site know that my mother Alice Kulhawik passed away this week peacefully overnight in her sleep at the age of 92. She died on the solstice, the first day of fall, a time of transition. I saw her just the week [...]
This weekend is a mixed bag and involves Mick Jagger and William Shakespeare. If only they had worked together. I couldn't wait to see the THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY a Sony Classics release beginning August 7 at West Newton Theater. For this movie critic/arts reporter, what could be better than an art heist film starring [...]
JUNETEENTH. It's a date whose history, because of the sweep of recent historic events, has been thrust into sharper focus. JUNETEENTH commemorates June 19, 1865 the date on which slaves in Texas were finally informed not only of the end of the Civil War, but also of their freedom more than two years after Abraham [...]
Our mourning and awakening continues this weekend as BLACK LIVES MATTER holds center stage. THEATER: From the BOCH CENTER watch this potent, hyper-relevant performance piece called “Ode To The Young Black Man” from the 2016 City Spotlights final showcase, written and performed by program alumnus Alex Drumm! MOVIES: The Coolidge Corner Theatre [...]
